SEVILLE
744
SEVILLE
1676, 1677, and 16S0), and three times her mother
went to visit her in the south (1672, 1690, and 1694).
From this last visit she was not to return. Stricken
at the bedside of her sick daughter — although this
was disputed at the end of the nineteenth century
— she died at Grignan at the age of seventy.
As soon as she became a widow Mme de Sevigne, without favouring them, found numerous aspirants to her hand, among them Turenne, the Prince de Conti, and her cousin, Bussy-Rabutin. She lived mostlv at court, visiting her friends Mme de La Faj-ette, Mme de Larochefoucauld, Mme de Pom- ponne etc. As early as 1677 she went to reside at the Hotel Carnavalet, of which she remained the lessee until her death, but she often stayed at Livry (Seine et Oise) or at the ChAteau des Rochers (Ille-et-Vilaine < . But wherever she was, tlv memory of her daughter was with her. Her maternal love is unparalleled. Arnaud d'Andilly reproaches the Marchioness with loving "as a lovely pagan" her whom Bussy-Rabutin calls "the prettiest girl in France". As a matter of fact this absorbing and somewhat impassioned affection caused her much suffering owanp to the enforced separations, but unhke vulgar passions, it was never egotistical. Naturally it in- spired the correspondence of tho Marchioness, but this corre- spondence is also a picture of the lovely period at which it was written, or rather it is an eloquent echo of what was said and thouglit at the court and in the distinguishe< 1 world frequented by its author. Her style is marked by natural- ne.ss, movement, and humour, dis- playing a constant creation of words, not with regard to new terms, but the placing of the old, and tlie uses tu wlmli they were put. The author manifests her gaiety, her natural disposition to look on the best side of things, while her irony and wit, though sometimes light, are always healthy. Exuberant and independent in speech, Mme de Sevigne was always dignified in conduct, with serious tastes beneath her worldly manner. Sincerely religious, she had a special devo- tion to Divine Providence. She displayed this devo- tion to her la.st hour in a manner which impres.sed the Count de Grignan. "She faced death", he says, "with astonishing firmness and submission".
Georges Bertrin.
Seville, Archdiocese of (Hispalensis), in Spain, is bounded on the north by Badajoz; on the east by Cordova and Malaga, on the south by Cadiz, on the west by Portugal. It comprises portions of the civil provinces of Seville, Cadiz, Cordova, Iluelva, and Malaga. Its episcopal city has a population of some 144,(K)0. Its suffragans are Badajoz, Ca<liz and C<'Uta, the Canaries, Cordova, and ^rcneriffe.
In Roman times Seville was the capital of the Prov- ince of Bajtica, and the origin of the diocese goes back to Apostohc times, or at least to the first century of our era. St. Gerontius, Bishop of Italica (about i^our miles from Hispalis or Seville), preached in Bietica in Apostolic times, and without doubt must have left a pastor of its own to Seville. It is certain that in 303, when Sts. Justa and Rufina, the potters, suffered martyrdom for refusing to adore the idol Salambo
logue of the ancient prelates of Seville preserved in
the "Codex Emilianensis", a manuscript of the
year 1000, now in the Escorial. When Constantine
brought peace to the Church Evodius was Bishop of
Seville; he set himself to rebuild the ruined churches,
among them he appears to have built the church of
San Vicente, perhaps the first cathedral of Seville.
In the time of Bishoj) Sempronius Seville was con-
sidered the metropolis of Ba'tica; and Glaucius was
bi.shop when the barbarians invaded Spain. Mar-
cianus was bishoj) in 428, when Gunderic wished
to seize the treasures of the Church of San Vicente;
Sabinus II was dispossessed of his see by Rechila
the Suevian (441) and recovered it in 461. Zeno
(472-486) was appointed vicar Apostolic by Pope
Simplicius, and Pope Hormisdas
gave the same chaige to Bishop
Sallustius (510-22) in the provinces
of Baetica and Lusitania. But the
see was rendered illustrious
above all by the holy brothers
Sts. Leander and Isidore. The
former of these contributed to the
conversion of St. Hermengild and
Recared, and presided at the Third
Council of Toledo (.589), while the
latter presided at the Fourth Coun-
cil of Toledo and was the teacher of
medieval Sjmin. A very different
kind of celebrity was attained by
Archbishop Oppas, who usurped
the See of Toledo and conspired
with his nephews, the sons of
"\^ itiza, against Don Rodrigo,
contributing bj' his treason to the
disaster of Guadalete and the
downfall of the Visigothic power.
During that period two provincial
councils of Ba'tica were held at
Seville: the first, in the reign of
Recared, in 590, assembled in the
cathedral to urge the execution of
the mandates of the Third Council
of luledu; the .second, in November, 690, in the
reign of Sisebut, was convoked and presided over
by St. Isidore, to promote ecclesiastical discipUne.
The succession of the bishops of Seville continued
after the Mohammedan conquest, Nonnitus being
elected on the death of Oppas. The last Mozarabic
bLshop was Clement, elected two years before the in-
vasion of the Almohades (1144). The Catholic reli-
gion was confined to the parish Church of S. lld(»-
fonso, until the restoration following the reconquest
of the city by St . I'crdinand. After a siege of fifteen
months, the holy king look the city on 23 Nov., 1248;
and the Bi.shop of Cordova, Gutierre de Olea, purified
the great mosque and prepared it for Divine worship
on 22 December. The king deposited in the new
cathedral two famous images of the Bles.sed Virgin:
"Our Lady of the Kings", an ivory statue to which a
miraculous origin was attributed, and which St. Fer-
dinand always carried with him in battle on his saddle-
bow; and the silver image, "Our Lady of the See".
The king's .son Philip was ajjpoinfcd Archbishop of
Seville, wliilc he was given as coadjulor the Dominican
liainmiido de Losada, Bisliop of Segovia, wlio became
arclibishoj) five years later, on tlie abdication of the
infanta. In addition to the catlKHhaJ eliai)ter, another
community of clerics was formed to sing the Divine
Office in the Chapel Royal of Our Lady of the Kings
(Nuestra Senora de los Reyes) about 1252. Most of
the other mosques of the city were converted into
churches, only St a. Maria la Blanca, St a. Cruz, and S.
Bartolom6 being left to the Jews for synagogues. The
there was a Bishop of Seville, Sabinus, who assistea cathedral originated in the great mosque which was
at the Ojuncil of Ilibcris (287). Before that time the work of the emirs who built the Aljama mosque,
Marcellus had been bishop, as appears from a cata- rebuilt in 1171 by the Ahnohadcmir, Yusuf-ben-
